The present disclosure relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a board having the same.
Generally, electronic components using a ceramic material, such as capacitors, inductors, piezoelectric elements, varistors, thermistors, and the like, include a ceramic body formed of a ceramic material, internal electrodes formed in the ceramic body, and external electrodes formed on surfaces of the ceramic body so as to be connected to the internal electrode layers.
Among the ceramic electronic components, a multilayer ceramic capacitor is configured to include a plurality of multilayer dielectric layers, internal electrode layers disposed to face each other, having the dielectric layer interposed therebetween, and external electrodes electrically connected to the internal electrode layers.
Multilayer ceramic capacitors have been widely used as components of computers, mobile communications devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and the like, due to advantages such as small size, high capacitance, ease of mounting, and the like.
In accordance with the improvement in performance of electric or electronic devices and thinness and lightness of the electric or electronic devices, demand for small-sized, high-performance, and inexpensive electronic components has increased.
Generally, a method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic capacitor is as follows. Ceramic green sheets are manufactured, and a conductive paste is printed on the ceramic green sheets to form an internal electrode film.
Several tens to several hundreds of ceramic green sheets on which the internal electrode films are formed are stacked to overlap each other, thereby forming a green ceramic multilayer body.
Then, the green ceramic multilayer body is compressed at a high temperature and high pressure to form a hard green ceramic multilayer body, and a cutting process is performed on the hard green ceramic multilayer body to manufacture a green chip. Then, the green chip is plasticized, sintered, and polished, and external electrodes are formed to complete the multilayer ceramic capacitor.
Generally, internal electrodes formed of metal more easily contract and expand relative to the dielectric layers formed of ceramic material, and stress due to the difference between coefficients of thermal expansion acts on the ceramic multilayer body, and thus cracks may occur in the ceramic multilayer body.
Meanwhile, the reliability of the multilayer ceramic capacitor may be decreased due to permeation of a plating solution in a process of thinning the dielectric layers and internal electrodes of the ceramic body.
In accordance with the trend towards miniaturization and capacitance increase of the multilayer ceramic capacitor, the ceramic multilayer body has been made thinner and with increased number of layers. As a result, crack occurrence has increased in frequency and, due to permeation of the plating solution, the reliability of the multilayer ceramic capacitor has decreased. Therefore, the importance of solving these problems has increased.